STEINWAY FESTIVAL 2018

Joe Stilgoe & Jamie Safir

Joe Stilgoe is an internationally acclaimed singer, pianist and songwriter. His live shows are a mixture of virtuosic musicianship, breath-taking theatricality and interaction with the audience, combining on the spot improvisation and the quickest of wits.Jamie Safir is a 26 year-old pianist, composer and arranger highly in-demand across the worlds of jazz, pop and musical theatre in the UK. He has worked regularly with Will Young over the last 3 years and also performed with the likes of The Brand New Heavies, Olly Murs, Rebecca Ferguson & Steps.

Joe Stilgoe: "Revealing himself to be a powerful improviser with an instinctive gift for melody" - The Times

As well as releasing 5 critically lauded albums, three of which have topped the UK Jazz chart, Joe Stilgoe has toured around the world with his band and as a solo act, appearing in festivals, jazz clubs and concert halls from The Barbican to Birdland in New York. In his theatre work, he starred in High Society at The Old Vic in 2015, which led to him being invited to perform at the 2016 Olivier Awards. He has recently written the songs for a new production of The Jungle Book, which is currently touring the UK, and he has two other theatrical projects in development. He is frequently a guest performer with orchestras including The John Wilson Orchestra, RLPO, RTE and the BBC Concert Orchestra, and regularly puts together his own Big Band for sold-out shows across the country. In December 2017, Joe put together three Christmas shows for the Lyric Hammersmith with guests including Rob Brydon, Jamie Parker and Meow Meow, and he made his Albert Hall debut as a special guest with Guy Barker’s Big Band. He also works extensively on radio, having hosted and starred many times in BBC Radio 2’s Friday Night is Music Night, while also being a regular presence on the station. He has appeared on the Now Show, Loose Ends and The Horne Section for Radio 4, is a regular on In Tune for Radio 3 and this year he started his own brand-new show on JazzFM. On TV, he has appeared most notably hosting 2016’s BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year, and least notably in Bargain Hunt.

Within the London Jazz Scene, Jamie Safir has an ongoing collaboration with award-winning vocalist Ian Shaw as well as having worked with Claire Martin, Liane Carroll, Stan Sulzman, Iain Ballamy, Barb Jungr and the Ronnie Scott’s All Stars. He was a keyboardist in the hit 2017 musical Bat Out Of Hell and is currently Musical Director for Patti Boulaye and working on ‘The Sweetest Sounds of Rogers and Hart’ featuring Claire Moore & Robert Meadmore.

"The star of the show and the binding force behind the entire set was Jamie Safir. Not only a pianist at the start of a hugely promising career, but a musical arranger of true talent."Musical Theatre Review

"Jamie on Piano was riveting. I got the nightbus home, oh the glamour!"Julian Clary